Graduate Research News

UW graduate students are engaged in some of the most innovative research projects on Canada in the United States. Following are achievements of and articles by students on their projects including field research trips to Canada during the 2011-12 academic year.

Canadian Studies Graduate Affiliate, Ross Coen, Spoke at a University of Manitoba 2014 Political Studies Students' Conference

Ross Coen with 2013 Community College Master Teacher Institute participants.

Ross Coen, a Canadian Studies affiliate graduate and a ph.D. student in the History Department, spoke at a conference at the University of Manitoba entitled, Canada and the Arctic: Challenges and Opportunities.

To learn a little more about this conference:

The 2014 edition of the PSSC marks the 30th anniversary of the conference. In keeping with a tradition of stimulating discussion on topical issues, the theme of this conference will be “Canada and the Arctic: Challenges and Opportunities”. The conference will consist of five panels spread over three days, with each panel dedicated to analyzing a distinct aspect of the Arctic and Canada’s involvement in the region. Each panel will be composed of several speakers. The format will be interactive and discussion-based. Experts from Canada and around the world have been invited to present their research and ideas.

The PSSC is organized, designed and run by graduate and senior undergraduate students from the Department of Political Studies at the University of Manitoba. Held annually since 1985, the PSSC has earned a stellar reputation among the academic community, government officials, and students across Canada, the United States and Europe. The students are all volunteers. They are responsible for picking the theme of the conference, deciding on and arranging for speakers to come to the University of Manitoba, raising all of the funds for the conference, publicizing the event, organizing speaker accommodation and meals, reserving a suitable venue, ensuring audio-visual resources are in place, moderating the panels and arranging for all of the wrap up. The public and important stake holders are invited to attend and engage in the debate. This year’s PSSC co-chairs are Ms. Alison Kimlinger (MA candidate) and Mr. Elikem Tsamenyi (MA candidate) and Mr. Richard Farthing-Nichol (undergraduate candidate). Drs. Andrea Charron and James Fergusson are the faculty volunteers. More can be found at the University of Manitoba site here: http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/departments/political_studies/3257.html.

Ross Coen is a Ph.D. student in the UW History Department where he is studying the 20th century American West, in particular the intersections of environment, technology, and politics in Alaska fisheries. His 2012 book, Breaking Ice for Arctic Oil, examines the political and technological history of the SSManhattan, an icebreaking tanker that transited the Northwest Passage in 1969 in order to test the viability of shipping Alaska North Slope crude oil via circumpolar marine routes. Ross formerly worked on climate change policy in the office of Senator Ted Stevens and on rural energy development for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP), an applied research institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Ross Coen, Doctoral Student & Author Gives Talk on Resource Development in Canada’s Arctic at the Annual Community College Master Teacher Institute

Ross Coen with 2013 Community College Master Teacher Institute participants.

Ross Coen, a Ph.D. student in the History Department and author of, Breaking Ice for Arctic Oil, gave a presentation “Historical Perspectives on Environmental Stewardship and Resource Development in the Canadian Arctic” at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies' Community College Master Teacher Institute in July.

Upon discovery of the Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska’s North Slope in 1968, the proposed construction of pipelines, drilling pads, offshore terminals, tankers, and other infrastructure stood to threaten the environmental integrity of the Canadian Arctic and challenge Ottawa’s claims of sovereignty over the lands and waters of the region. At the same time, however, American development proposals afforded an opportunity for Canada to frame its own Arctic resource policies in the context of ecological stewardship. This presentation will provide a historical context for present-day debates about Arctic resource development by examining the political, diplomatic, and technological facets of the Alaska “oil rush” of the late 1960s.

Ross Coen is a Ph.D. student in the UW History Department where he is studying the 20th century American West, in particular the intersections of environment, technology, and politics in Alaska fisheries. His 2012 book, Breaking Ice for Arctic Oil, examines the political and technological history of the SSManhattan, an icebreaking tanker that transited the Northwest Passage in 1969 in order to test the viability of shipping Alaska North Slope crude oil via circumpolar marine routes. Ross formerly worked on climate change policy in the office of Senator Ted Stevens and on rural energy development for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP), an applied research institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Ross Coen is a first-year Ph.D. student in the History Department where he is studying fisheries in the North Pacific Ocean, in particular the intersections of environment, technology, and politics in how fisheries are utilized and managed. He intends to examine the diplomatic relationships between Canada, Japan, and the United States concerning salmon fishing in the extraterritorial waters of the North Pacific. Coen holds a Masters degree in Northern Studies from the University of Alaska Fairbanks where he researched the history of oil and gas transportation systems in the Arctic. His 2012 book, Breaking Ice for Arctic Oil, examines the political and technological history of the SS Manhattan, an icebreaking tanker that transited the Northwest Passage in 1969 in order to test the viability of shipping Alaska North Slope crude oil via circumpolar marine routes, and the controversy regarding Canada’s territorial claims to Arctic waters. The research project was supported by the Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies. Before coming to UW, Ross worked on climate change policy in the Washington, DC office of Senator Ted Stevens.

The Canadian Studies Center has a Professional Development Program for Graduate Students enabling any U.W. student from across campus to join the Center as an Affiliated Graduate Student. Affiliated Graduate Students are provided with mentorship and opportunities on cross-border studies.

Jill Woelfer, doctoral candidate at the Information School and 2011-12 Fulbright Fellow, is focusing her research on homeless youth in Canada and the United States. The Music is My Life exhibition is part of her study.

Music is My Life is an art show of drawings and stories by 129 homeless young people, aged 15-25. The drawings and stories were created as part of Jill Woelfer’s PhD dissertation research. Homeless young people in Seattle and Vancouver were asked to imagine a music device that could help someone experiencing homelessness and then draw a picture of the device and write a story about a situation where the device would be used. The goal of Music is My Life is to bring the voices of homeless young people to the community in order to increase understanding and spark further discussions.

The Music is My Life show will be on display at Molly’s Café at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington from May 30 to August 29, 2013. The show consists of 8 panels with reproductions of 18 drawings and stories and a website where all 129 drawings and stories can be viewed (see http://musicismylife.ischool.uw.edu/wordpress/).

The Music is My Life show was prepared by a community-based team and includes: homeless young people, staff from agencies that provide services to homeless young people, University of Washington students, alumni, staff and faculty, business leaders in the University District, and other neighbors. The team is led by Jill Palzkill Woelfer, a PhD candidate at the University of Washington Information School and 2011-2012 Fulbright Fellow to Canada. Find out more about her research with homeless young people at: http://dub.washington.edu/people/jill-woelfer

The Canadian Studies Center has a Professional Development Program for Graduate Students enabling any U.W. student from across campus to join the Center as an Affiliated Graduate Student. Affiliated Graduate Students are provided with mentorship and opportunities on cross-border studies.

Jill with two of her friends in front of the Canadian Parliament buildings in Ottawa.

Jill Palzkill Woelfer, 2012 recipient of the University of Washington Graduate School Medal and 2011-2012 Fulbright Fellow to Canada attended the 2012 CONNECT seminar from July 23-26 in Ottawa, Ontario. Jill, a PhD candidate in Information Science who works with homeless young people, was one of 16 doctoral candidates and professors from across the US chosen to take part in the seminar.

The CONNECT program is a national initiative which engages new Canadianists for the American higher education community. CONNECT is a joint program of the Center for the Study of Canada, State University of New York College at Plattsburgh and Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT). The seminar was hosted by CONNECT Executive Director and Co-founder, Prof. Christopher Kirkey, and CONNECT Co-founder, Prof. André Senecal.

The seminar was made up of academic lectures, briefings from government officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and the U.S. Embassy, and guided visits to the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian War Museum, the Parliament of Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada, and the National Archives. Lectures covered Canadian politics and society and were given by faculty from Carleton University, Queen’s University and the University of Ottawa. Each day culminated with a dinner or reception, hosted one evening by Dr. Michael Hawes and staff at Fulbright Canada.

Jill was happy to have another opportunity to visit Ottawa after a wonderful experience in September 2012 when she took part in the Fulbright Canada orientation. Returning to Ottawa after having spent nine months living in Canada pursuing her dissertation research was galvanizing. “I am fully committed to continuing to increase my knowledge of Canada and to pursuing work with homeless young people in Canada.”

The Canadian Studies Center, through its Graduate Student Professional Development program, works closely with schools and departments across campus to encourage and support graduate student study and research that includes Canada, the Canada-US relationship and Canada's role in the world contributing to the vibrancy of Canadian studies at the UW. For a list of current graduate affiliates see http://jsis.washington.edu/canada/graduate/.

Grad Student in History Published in the American Review of Canadian Studies

Wendi Lindquist is a doctoral candidate in History.

The June 2012 special edition of the American Review of Canadian Studies focuses on new voices in Canadian Studies, specifically the graduate students of the CONNECT Program (sponsored by the Center for the Study of Canada, State University of New York College at Plattsburgh). Wendi Lindquist, History, contributed an article, “Death and Rise of the State: Criminal Courts, Indian Executions, and Early Pacific Northwest Governments.”

Wendi’s article “explores the connections between the process of state formation and the earliest executions of Native peoples in the Pacific Northwest at the crucial historical moment when the contested territory of Cascadia was emerging as part of the British colonies of North America and the American republic. Focusing on the late 1840s and early 1850s, she concludes that nascent governments in the Pacific Northwest rushed to establish the supremacy of the Anglo-American legal tradition” (Introduction). Wendi is a doctoral candidate in History. Her area of study is the 18th and 19th century North American West, particularly the Pacific Northwest. Her dissertation examines native and newcomer death practices in the region that now comprises the western parts of British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. American Review of Canadian Studies is a refereed, multidiscipline, quarterly journal. Published by the American Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, American Review of Canadian Studies examines Canada and the Canadian point of view from an American perspective.

March 2012
David Pettinicchio's paper, “Migration and Ethnic Nationalism: Anglophone Exit and the ‘Decolonization’ of Québec,” has been selected as winner of the 2012 Nations and Nationalism Prize in the memory of Dominique Jacquin-Berdal. This award, given by The Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism, will be presented at the ASEN conference at the London School of Economics. In addition, David's paper will be published in the ASEN journal, Nations and Nationalism.

Jill Woelfer Receives Award for Young Homeless and Persoanl Digital Technology Research

Jill Woelfer

April 2012
Jill Woelfer, Information School, was just awarded the UW Graduate School Medal for her research on homeless young people and personal digital technologies. This award honors Jill’s scholarship and her commitment to social improvement in our neighborhood and far beyond. Currently a Fulbright Fellow to Canada, Jill is collecting comparative data in Vancouver, BC and Seattle on the musical listening experiences of homeless young people, with an eye toward social interventions through music and personal digital technologies. Over the last several years Jill’s research has appeared at CHI, in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, and in other places. Her dissertation committee includes Eliza Dresang, Batya Friedman, David Hendry (chair), Julie Hersberger (UNC, Greensboro, Dept. of Library and Information Studies), and Susan Kemp (GSR, UW School of Social Work).

Pettinicchio Article Published in the International Journal of Canadian Studies

David Pettinicchio

David Pettinicchio, doctoral candidate in Sociology and affiliated graduate student of the Center, just had an paper published in the International Journal of Canadian Studies. "Public and Elite Policy Preferences: Gay Marriage in Canada" explores the role of parties, interest groups and public opinion in the enactment of 'controversial' public policy.

As a PhD candidate in sociology, David has broad interests in political sociology, law and society, social problems, and social movements. His dissertation examines the rise of the disability rights movements from an historical, organizational and institutional perspective. He has published in Social Indicators Research and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. He teaches a course on contemporary social movements at the University of Washington, and was recently invited to sit on the student editorial board of the journal Social Problems.

The University of Washington Canadian Studies Center welcomes Leoule Goshu as our newest Graduate Staff Researcher and Strategic Partnerships Curriculum Developer. Through our Center, Leoule is an ambitious agenda-setter: launching four new Summer 2011 courses, including University of Washington's first queer study abroad/study tour program in Vancouver British Columbia in partnership with Simon Frasier University's Canadian History of Sex and Activism National Academic Conference, College of Arts and Sciences Comparative History of Ideas and University of Washington Q Center administrations. Leoule studies Organizations and Policy: Higher Education Administration with his applied focus on building Canadian interdisciplinary study tours and undergraduate courses partnerships for our center. His research interests include career, student and organizational development.

Prior to joining our center, Leoule Goshu studied at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government on a prestigious Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship. Leoule is grateful for the opportunity to strengthen University of Washington Canadian Studies Center's footprint and global impact.

Leoule's work drew the attention of UW athlete David Kopay, who contributed $1 million to the University of Washington Q Center, the queer community center. He was featured in Advocate Magazine , the University of Washington Daily and represented the University of Washington in the 2007 Seattle Times graduation edition.

Leoule Goshu in Vancouver.

He enjoys connecting people with jobs, scholarships, and graduate school opportunities. His passion is to pay it forward and help people live their lives to the fullest.

Leoule's 2012 project is to mobilize a cross-university team to develop a US-Canada conference on the History of Justice, Sovereignty, and Identity on the 150th anniversary of the University of Washington. He welcomes interest from the Canadian Studies Center community. Leoule can be reached at leoule@uw.edu.http://www.facebook.com/leoule

Chris is a second year MBA student at the Michael G. Foster School of Business and a first year Master of Science in Real Estate student at the Runstad Center for Real Estate Studies, both at the University of Washington in Seattle.

“The 2010 Canadian Leadership Orientation Program was fascinating and insightful. I learned not only about Canada, but the U.S. and Mexico as well. A common theme pervaded all of the talks and panel discussions: It is vitally important for the continued success of our three countries that future business leaders understand the issues and driving forces that underlie our economic, cultural, and demographic ties.
Therefore, I have undertaken the task of furthering the knowledge of my Foster MBA peers by leading 25 of them on a study tour to Toronto in March 2011. We will spend a week visiting several of Canada's most influential business including TD Bank, the CBC, Rogers Communications, Hudson's Bay Company, and Tim Hortons. Our goal is to learn more about Canadian businesses and best practices, how trade and politics influence company operations, and how Canadian companies compete globally. Of course, we will see many fantastic sights around Toronto as well, including Niagara Falls, the CN Tower, and the majesty that is Canadian Hockey: The Maple Leafs (Please note: The Telfer School of Management does not support this comment…Go Sens GO!).

To the Telfer School of Management CLOP program organizers and partners, thank you! I am very grateful for the experiences during that week in Ottawa and Montreal with some of the brightest minds and nicest people.”
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Graduate Affiliate from Marine Affairs, Amanda Barney, Returns from Research Trip to a Fisheries Out-Post in Newfoundland

During the middle of September 2010 I traveled to Fogo Island, Newfoundland in order to conduct a series of interviews with locals in an attempt to measure community resilience on the island. The original aim of my research was to use the communities on Fogo Island as a case study for how to sustain and develop community resilience in fisheries resource dependent outports that are or will be facing major changes to the fisheries they depend on.

Currently the communities on the island are in the middle of major social changes - they are going to have a centralized municipal government for the first time in their history instead of having representatives from each community, and they are seeing changes occur due to the investments of time and money from two organizations. The Shorefast Foundation is a charitable organization that is partnering with and supporting the people of Fogo Island as they invest in ways to revitalize their economy in the face of ongoing changes to the North Atlantic fisheries (www.shorefast.org). The Fogo Island Arts Corporation is a contemporary art venue housed in several studios that aims to make Fogo Island and the Change Islands internationally visible through the arts (http://artscorpfogoisland.ca/).

Due to the input from these two organizations, the communities are no longer typical outports. Most small fishing villages do not have this type of non-governmental financial and social support and this meant the communities of Fogo Island may no longer be ideal case studies for other fisheries dependent outports. Since I was on Fogo Island, and because the people were so generous with their time, ideas and thoughts about their future, I knew that I wanted this place to remain the focus of my research. I was able to talk with people at both the Shorefast Foundation and the Fogo Island Arts Corporation (who so kindly showed me inside the beautiful Long Studio), and with locals and determined that I could still look at social sustainability on Fogo Island. But instead of attempting to measure it, I will instead attempt to help promote and build it by developing a geotourism plan for Fogo Island as described by the National Geographic Center for Sustainable Destinations (http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/sustainable/about_geotourism.html).
Amanda Barney is a second year graduate student at the School of Marine Affairs and a Canadian Studies Affiliate at the Jackson School working with Professor Marc L. Miller. She currently returned from a research trip to her native Newfoundland where she got to explore Fogo Island for the first time.

UW Researcher at the Coastal Society 22nd International Conference
by Barbara Bennett

Barbara Lyon Bennett will complete her graduate degree in marine policy Fall 2010 from the School of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington. She will focus her future work on stakeholder engagement in heavily used coastal areas to foster marine stewardship. Barbara was a summer 2009 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow with the Center.

The 22nd International Conference of The Coastal Society, June 13–16, 2010 in Wilmington, North Carolina, attracted 270 participants to focus on issues impacting coastal environments. The ironic timing of the conference as an oil-based ecological catastrophe unfolds in the Gulf of Mexico created a somber reminder of coastal vulnerabilities. Participants shared strategies to work on all scales, from international to local, to cherish and manage our shores, engage whole communities in their care and assume a precautionary approach to risks and hazards.

As a graduate student of the School of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington, this was my first TCS conference. I presented my thesis research as part of a panel addressing Marine Conservation—Sociopolitical Adaptation. Other panel members addressed management dynamics in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and non-governmental organizational work for marine conservation at multiple international sites.

Stakeholder engagement in establishing regulations to protect endangered southern resident killer whales in the Salish Sea was my presentation topic. Southern resident killer whales return every spring to transboundary waters on the western-most boundary between Canada and the United States and are listed as endangered in both countries. Stakeholders in this case study include scientists, conservationists, whale watching professionals, fishermen and communities on both sides of the border.

Approximately 25 conference participants attended and contributed to a lively exchange with the panel. The discussion affirmed the importance of engaging stakeholders in all phases of policy development, implementation and adjustments when addressing issues that link ecological and social dynamics.

This project was supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Program Enhancement Grant, Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Government of Canada.

Bagpipe Music Traditions in Canada, Scotland and Brittanyby Sylvia DeTar

Sylvia DeTar with the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, moments after winning the 2009 World Pipe Band Championships. (Photo by L. Casjens)

Sylvia is a composer, performer, and master’s student in ethnomusicology at the UW. She is a 2009 Summer FLAS award recipient from the Canadian Studies Center.

Last summer, I received a French FLAS award from the Canadian Studies Center, enabling me to study French, and play highland bagpipes with the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Pipe Band. My
research examines relationships among bagpipe music in Scotland, Brittany, and Canada. The SFU Pipe Band, the six-time World Pipe Band Champion, incorporates music from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and North America, representing a fair amount of Celtic expression and in turn influencing pipe band repertoires around the world. However, despite sharing French as a language, there exists a historical separation of repertoires between Canada and Brittany.

During the summer, acclaimed Breton bagpiper Xavier Borderiou joined the SFU Pipe Band, introduced the band to Breton music, and helped correct my French homework (!). For the first time, the SFU Pipe Band’s piping school taught Breton tunes (which include many false notes, fast runs, and irregular time signatures).

In August the SFU Pipe Band traveled to Scotland where it sold out Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, recorded a CD, defended its world pipe band championship status, and won. I then traveled to St. Malo, Brittany, the home of Jacques Cartier (the explorer who claimed Canada for France). There I learned interesting stories about the history of immigration to Canada, listened to Breton music, spoke to a few locals, and rounded out my summer of French and bagpipe research.

Next summer, I plan to continue my research into the relationship between bagpipes in Canada and in Brittany, travel to Québec, learn more French, and befriend bagpipe bands in the area. I can’t wait!

As a graduate student in Public Affairs, Jennifer has focused her research on civil society and government cooperation in both Québec and Argentina. More specifically, she is interested in policies where civil society organizations, particularly NGOs, make up for weaknesses in government resources and/or accessibility.

Immigration is an important aspect of the Québec policy agenda. Officially the provincial governmental authorities encourage immigration due to a low birth rate and a need to fill certain labor sector vacancies. As a result, immigration has been on a consistent rise for the past two decades. Many immigrants come from French-speaking regions, such as North Africa, the Caribbean and France. However, there has been an increased immigration flow from other parts of the world as well, especially from Asia and Latin America. Due to the intrinsic cultural importance placed upon the French language within Québec, many of these immigrants have a difficult time integrating into their adopted communities. In order to prevent marginalization, civil society organizations and government agencies are working together to create effective integration programs. I am currently looking at various integration programs provided by the third sector and the government. Key questions include: What are integration success rates? How do they determine/measure success? Do the government, civil society and/or the immigrants themselves measure success differently? Is language the major obstacle to social and economic integration or are other factors more important?

Improving my French over the past two summers in Montréal as a FLAS recipient has allowed me to more effectively conduct my research. I can now use a broader range of resources that are solely provided in French. Additionally, I have had a chance to develop a network of contacts.

Julia Colleen Miller with Edward Apsassin, Doig River Drummer and Dane-zaa language specialist. Photo taken at the Doig Days Cultural Fair, Doig River First Nation, June 2009.

Julia Miller is a doctoral candidate in Linguistics. She has received FLAS fellowships to study the endangered First Nations language of Dane-zaa, spoken in north-eastern British Columbia and north western Alberta, Canada since 2006.

This past summer brought me back to beautiful British Columbia. This trip focused on two main projects. The first was to work with community members of the Doig River First Nation to translate stories and conversations we collected over the past year. The second was to collect similar narratives at the Halfway River First Nation, and begin translations of those. During the past three years, these sessions have brought together linguists, anthropologists, Dane-zaa chiefs, councilors, elders and other community members to discuss language endangerment, revitalization efforts and language policy. These stories and conversations I have collected will be used by the community members for language and cultural education. Thanks to my Canadian Studies FLAS fellowships, I have been able to take an active part in this ongoing project.

This project was supported, in part, by funding from the Center’s Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship Grant, US Department of Education, Office of International Education and Graduate Program Services.

Cross-Border Research and Indigenous Inquiry

By Karen Capuder

Karen Capuder (Kanien’keha:ka) is a third year PhD student in UW’s Sociocultural Anthropology Program. Ms. Capuder’s research methodologies are grounded in the Kaianerekowa, the Great Law of Peace of the Roti’nonshon:ni (Iroquois).

The Eighth Annual Symposium of Native American Students in Advanced Academia was organized by a team of graduate students including Karen Capuder (right). Augustine McCaffery (left), Graduate School, served as advisor. A reception followed the symposium that celebrated the promotion of Canadian Studies Affiliated Faculty, Charlotte Coté, American Indian Studies, to Associate Professor.

On April 3, 2009, Native American Students in Advanced Academia (NASAA) hosted the Eighth Annual Symposium of Native Scholarship at the UW. Cross-border inquiry offers Indigenous students the opportunity to engage with scholars immersed in different political and institutional climates conducting research within their areas of interest.

The cross-border exchange of ideas, methodologies, and philosophies helps to deepen Indigenous student awareness of the possibilities of incorporating the values of their own families and communities into their research, as well as providing venues for dialogue around environmental, political, social, and spiritual issues which know no borders. NASAA student Karen Capuder (Kanien’keha:ka) draws on her conversations with traditional leaders from Kahnawa:ke, Tyendinega, and Akwesasne in creating a framework for anthropological inquiry rooted in Roti’nonshon:ni values. Ms. Capuder has found that her Kanien’keha:ka colleagues who live in Canada have comparatively more support in their efforts to create collaborative research methodologies for working with First Nations and other Indigenous peoples than she finds in US-based anthropology programs.

Ms. Capuder’s PhD supervisory committee includes Dr. John Welch, Canada Research Chair in First Nations Cultural and Environmental Resource Management at Simon Fraser University, whose collaborative archaeological research with First Nations in British Columbia is on the cutting edge of empowering anthropological inquiry with and within Indigenous communities.

The Eighth Annual Symposium for Native American Students in Advanced Academia was funded, in part, by a grant from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and a Title VI Grant, International Education Programs Service, US Department of Education.

Native American Students in Advanced Academia (NASAA)

The Native American Students in Advanced Academia (NASAA) at the University of Washington was created to bring together graduate and professional students of Native American, First Nations, and Alaskan Native descent as well as our other Indigenous relatives. NASAA's goal is to increase awareness of the diversity and excellence of the ongoing research, work and achievement of these students, and to provide a forum to socialize, network, and disseminate information.

Dan Hart (far left) and Luana Ross (far right), co-directors of the Native Voices Program at the University of Washington, celebrate the Daybreak Star Cultural Center graduation ceremony with graduate student, Francine Swift, and Cetan Williams.

One interesting aspect about working with both the Canadian Studies Center and the Native Voices Program at the University of Washington is the unique perspective that indigenous research brings to the whole concept of “border.” Within Canadian Studies, cross-border research and education is vital to our role within the university and our mission as an international studies center. Within Native Voices and Indigenous Studies, however, the whole concept of border tends to get turned on its head. For many First Nations and Native American communities and individuals, the US-Canadian border is an historic and continuing reminder of the decimating separations it brought into their lives.

A new Native Voices production has caused us to think about the border and its devastating effects upon the lives of Native peoples in Canada and the US. Graduate student in Native Voices, Francine Swift (Port Gamble S’Klallam), recently completed a thesis project about her community and their historic lands. Her community, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Nation, live on a reservation of 1,340 acres near Kingston, Washington. They are a small tribe, consisting of about 1,100 members. But historically, they belonged to a vast nation, which extended from central British Columbia through northwestern Oregon and the interior Fraser and Columbia River basins. For centuries, S’Klallam individuals, families, and communities would freely move about their territories. Francine’s motivation for creating her film was to be able to tell young people in her community the vast scope of their homelands, not just the borders created by the Canadian and US governments.

Julia Colleen Miller, Linguistics and 2008-09 FLAS Fellow (Dane-zaa), standing in front of a birch grove after a day of helping pick up trash outside the Halfway River Reserve in British Columbia.

Julia Colleen Miller is a doctoral candidate in Linguistics and a 2008-09 FLAS Fellow (Dane-zaa). Her dissertation focuses on the acoustic properties of lexical tone in two dialects of Dane-zaa: Doig River and Halfway River.

This quarter, research pertaining to my FLAS fellowship has been two-fold. I have been studying the Dane-zaa language, a First Nations language spoken in northern British Columbia and Alberta, through the use of stories and conversations that I have helped collect over the past four years. Additionally, I am exploring the importance of geography in the Dane-zaa culture. During these past four years I have part of a language documentation team (http://www.mpi.nl/DOBES/projects/beaver/languages) that has been working to bring these two concepts together, by documenting the Dane-zaa language from a place names perspective. The documentation team, together with Dane-zaa community members, has collected hours of linguistic data that derive from narratives of culturally relevant locations and personal migration histories. These materials, which have been deposited into our digital language archive (http://corpus1.mpi.nl/ds/imdi_browser?openpath=MPI689499%23), include stories, conversations, folklore and procedural recordings that are intrinsically tied to the land.

My colleague, Gabriele Müller (University of Münster), and I envisioned an alternative way to access the archived materials, one that reflects the geographic knowledge of the Dane-zaa. To this end, we created map layers (.kml files) for use with Google Earth. One layer represents specific locations, chosen by the elders as historically significant locations. Each geographic point has various media files associated with it. Direct links to these media are provided in the layer, as well as links into the archive. A second layer provides place names in Dane-zaa, which are hyperlinked to audio files of elders pronouncing the names. We will be presenting this project at the first annual meeting of the International Conference of Language Documentation and Conservation, held on March 12-14, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Thanks to the FLAS awards I have received from the Canadian Studies Center, my work with the Dane-zaa elders, and my academic adviser here at UW, Sharon Hargus, Linguisitics, I am able to continue my scholarship of the Dane-zaa language as well as pursue my interests in geography and language archiving. It is my hope that I can create materials that will aid in the continuing efforts of language documentation and revitalization within the Dane-zaa communities.

Jennifer Leider, a graduate student at the Evans School of Public Affairs, focuses on comparative policy studies for her research. She has also expanded her research to citizen political engagement through public deliberation. More specifically, she is interested in comparatively looking at political and economic influences on media coverage and its effects upon citizen political engagement in the US, Canada and Western Europe.

My summer in Montreal was an amazing experience. The city has a great mix of Francophone and Anglophone history and culture. The intensive French program at a school in the heart of Old Montreal provided a great chance to improve my language skills from an intermediate to an advanced level. The experience has even inspired me to consider a PhD focusing on civil society in Québec.

Sara Earhart is a graduate student at the School of Marine Affair. She headed up the fundraising efforts for the Fisheries and Marine Ecosystems Conference as well as gave a paper on wildlife tourism. Sara will be graduating in June of 2008.

This past April 83 graduate students from the US and Canada convened for the 8th Annual Fisheries and Marine Ecosystems (FAME) Conference at the Olympic Park Institute. Students attending the conference traveled from 20 different Universities including Canadians from Dalhousie University, University of British Columbia, Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of Victoria, and Simon Fraser University.

The mission of this year's conference was to provide a forum for graduate students of marine and fisheries science, social science, and environmental policy to address existing issues in coastal and marine ecosystems, and to gain a more dynamic perspective on the approaches necessary to improve management of these ecosystems. A secondary goal was to provide a venue where current and future scientists, managers, and policy-makers can establish productive collaborations to address existing concerns and future needs in the research and management of marine and coastal ecosystems.

Every year one or two students receive a scholarship from the Center for outstanding contributions to cross-border marine management research. This year Mark Gleason, Marine Affairs, was selected for his paper. One of his case studies is from the Lummi Island Wild Reef Net Coop that targets trans-boundary stocks of sockeye salmon primarily destined for the Fraser River in Canada.

The FAME Conference proved to be an excellent opportunity for UW students to network and establish professional relationships with students from Canadian universities. We hope that this experience will promote cross-border research between the US and Canada in the future here at the UW.

Fisheries, Aquatic and Marine Ecosystems (FAME) NetworkThe FAME network is an association of graduate students from Canada and the US who are interested in a variety of aspects of fisheries, marine and near-shore ecosystems. The annual FAME conference provides a forum for graduate students to share research and network with peers. The conference encourages collaboration and camaraderie between and among graduate students from University of Washington, Oregon State University, Simon Fraser University, Washington State University and University of British Columbia.
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Brian Schefke, a doctoral candidate in History, received a 2007-08 Graduate Research Grant from Foreign Affairs, Canada for his project, "A Naturalist’s Empire: Natural History and Imperialism in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, 1790-1860." Brian’s topic deals with the activities of naturalists working in the Pacific Northwest during the early nineteenth century and how their work was connected to the interests of imperial powers, such as Britain, and the institutions through which they worked, such as the Hudson’s Bay Company.

My specialty within history is the history of the life sciences. Upon arriving at the UW, I became interested in natural history, the predecessor of modern biology. I had long been interested in the interaction of science with questions of politics and economics and thus began to investigate the practice of natural history as an “imperial science” in the Pacific Northwest. Or, science put in the service of advancing the expansionist aims of European nations contending for control of what is now Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia in the first half of the nineteenth century. The main question I am addressing is – how did natural history shape, and how was it shaped by, imperialist aims for the region?

Most of my research has been conducted locally. In particular, the journals of naturalists and fur traders have provided considerable insight into the practice of natural history in the Northwest and its implications for imperialism as expressed in the main economic activities conducted between Europeans and native peoples of the area. In addition, I am currently investigating the records of the Hudson Bay Company (HBC). As the representative of British power in the Northwest, the HBC was well placed to exert considerable political and economic influence in the region. The HBC was also significant in providing logistical support for visiting naturalists, and HBC employees themselves conducted natural historical research, either at the behest of the company or for the purposes of assisting scientific organizations in Britain.

The Graduate Research Grant will enable me to make trips to the HBC Archives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the Royal British Columbia Archives in Victoria, where I will undertake an intensive examination of HBC records as well as the perspectives of individual naturalists, traders and native people. This will aid me greatly in the completion of my dissertation. Furthermore, such information will help our historical - and contemporary - understanding of the connections between science and questions of political and economic power.

Susan Albrecht has a Master’s in Policy Studies and is finishing a Master’s in International Studies with the Jackson School of International Studies. She has also completed graduate certificates in Global Trade, Transportation and Logistics, and Environmental Management with the Program on the Environment. Her academic research focuses on international security, energy and environmental policy. As a research assistant in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Susan has assisted in research and co-authored papers on transportation logistics at the US-Canadian border and the Port of Prince Rupert, British Columbia.

For the last year and a half, I have been a research assistant in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in Professor Anne Goodchild’s research program, the Goods Movement Collaborative. The Collaborative is composed of an interdisciplinary group of graduate students who are engaged in research in various aspects of transportation, ports and the movement of goods.

The first year I worked on a research project that focused on service times at the Lower British Columbia and Whatcom County border crossings for freight carriers. We collected quantitative and qualitative data regarding variable border crossing times. Variable crossing times can cause significant transportation planning challenges for companies, which must either allow more time than is necessary or risk missing delivery windows. This border crossing is the fourth busiest commercial crossing on the US-Canadian border, and the most significant commercial crossing for the Western portion of this border. We talked to 20 companies that cross this border frequently – 13 US and seven Canadian – in order to get a better idea of the impact to regional carriers and to better understand the current impact of this variability on regional supply chains. As a result of our interviews, we identified seven strategies companies use for minimizing the impact of variability on their operations.

I co-authored the final paper, "Service time variability at the Blaine, Washington international border crossing and the impact on regional supply chains" and had the opportunity to present the results of this research at the World Conference on Transportation Research in Berkeley, California, in June 2007, as well as at the Border Regions in Transition conference in Victoria, British Columbia and Bellingham, Washington in January 2008.

Late summer and fall of 2007, Professor Goodchild asked me to assist on a separate project on the opening of a new deep water port and container terminal in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, which culminated in a paper we presented at The 4th Annual Steelhead Symposium Ports, Politics and the Pacific Gateway: Consequences for Regional Development in Western Canada in Prince Rupert entitled, "A container terminal at the Port of Prince Rupert: Considerations from a transportation perspective."

This year we are examining data that emerged from our previous work on border crossing times, specifically focusing on freight transportation in the Western Cascadia Border region. Our data shows there is a regional trucking pattern that is a function of this border region’s trade, geography, and infrastructure. The emergence of cross border regions is a new and growing field, but one that demonstrates that strong and multidimensional linkages are taking hold at the regional level. Through our research, we suggest the Western Cascadia region is an area that has substantial links. In particular the Seattle-Vancouver corridor is a vital trade and freight transportation gateway.

Center FLAS is the First in the Nation to Focus on a Canadian First Nations Language by Julia Colleen Miller, Linguistics, Fall 2007

Julia Miller conducting field research in Northern British Columbia.

Julia Colleen Miller is a doctoral candidate in Linguistics and a Foreign Language and Area Studies fellow for the 2007-08 academic year pursuing fluency in Dane-Zaa, an endangered language spoken in Northern British Columbia. This is the first FLAS in the nation to be awarded for a First Nations language.

Over the last couple of summers, I had the privilege of taking part in a large, collaborative project entitled Dane Wajich- Dane-zaa Stories and Songs: Dreamers and the Land. The theme for this exhibit was inspired by Elders of the Doig River First Nation and their desire to share stories that connect them and their grandchildren to the land. Our mission was to document the oral histories told in the Dane-zaa language (also known as Beaver), an endangered First Nations language spoken in British Columbia and Alberta. Other participants in the project included the youth of Doig River, anthropologists from University of British Columbia and Memorial University of Newfoundland, linguists from University of Cologne (Germany) and me, a doctoral candidate from the Linguistics Department at UW.

For one month, we traveled with Elders into the bush of the Peace River region to collect their stories. This video collection phase, funded by the Virtual Museum of Canada, has yielded a digital exhibit, an interactive webpage of video, audio, photos and texts. The English translations and subsequent transcription into the Dane-zaa writing system was funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, a private institution that finances documentation of endangered languages. The exhibit has officially launched and can be found at http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Danewajich/english/index.html.

Thanks to the FLAS awards I have received from the Canadian Studies Center, my work with the Dane-zaa Elders, and my academic advisor here at UW, Dr. Sharon Hargus, I am able to continue my scholarship of Dane-zaa. This will enable me not only to achieve my goal of a PhD in Linguistics, where I will be investigating acoustic properties of lexical tone in Dane-zaa, but also to give something back to the Dane-zaa-speaking communities. It is my hope that materials assembled for my language studies, as well as for my dissertation, will aid in continuing efforts toward language documentation and revitalization within the Dane-zaa communities.

A Montréal fountain Cody rode past daily on his way to Université Montréal.

Cody Case is a graduate student in Ethnomusicology and received a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship to study French in Montréal this last summer. He is conducting research on hip-hop music in Québec and how the music reflects the immigration experience in the province.

The white iris flowers layered the crowd of waving Québécois flags like a wild field on a windy summer night; the flowers symbolize purity, French Canadian history, and Québec’s deeply embedded roots in the Catholic Church. It was June 24th, the date of my arrival in Montréal and more popularly known as St. Jean Baptiste or la Fête Nationale du Québec. I arrived at my friend’s apartment to briefly unload my luggage before borrowing a bike to ride down to the Park Maisonneuve—dedicated to the French military officer who founded Montréal in the mid-17th century. I arrived to a massive crowd draped in Québec’s national colors of blue and white. There were so many flags waving that walking through the crowd was like an obstacle course; I was even whacked in the face by one while trying to approach the stage! Numerous Québécois popular music groups performed to an enthusiastic crowd that recited the lyrics song-after-song.

The concert on St. Jean Baptiste was an excellent introduction to the national sentiments and phenomenal support for the arts I would encounter countless times during my two-month stay in Montréal. As evident in the continual music festivals including le Festival du Jazz, le Festival Internationale Nuits d’Afrique, and le Francopholie (just to name a few), the music never ceases during Montréal’s comfortably warm and humid summer climate.

While in Montréal, I took engaging courses on the French language and Québec Culture and Society at the Université de Montréal, attended innumerable concerts where I conducted interviews with musicians, and even spent forty hours throughout the summer with a Québécois professor with whom I visited Montréal’s museums, libraries, and art galleries, or simply met at a cafe to study French grammar. Thanks to these opportunities, my research on the importance and diversity of hip-hop in Québécois society—in addition to the progress I made in French—will significantly improve my masters papers, and has granted me an unforgettable summer.

Center FLAS is First in the Nation in the Inuit Language —A Summer in Canada’s Arctic Studying Inuktitut by Tim Pasch, Communication, Fall 2007

"This picture was taken on the first night of our week-long hunting expedition. Every member had a role to play, and I was continually impressed with the skill and patience of the group members." (Tim is second from left.)

Timothy Pasch is a doctoral candidate in the Communication Department. He is working with committee chair Anthony Chan on the use of the internet in Arctic communities in Canada. The working title of his dissertation is, "Inuktitut Online in Nunavik: Mixed Methods Web-Based Strategies for the Preservation of Aboriginal and Minority Languages." Tim is in his fourth year of Inuktitut and has been awarded a FLAS fellowship for the Inuit language each year since 2005.

This past summer, thanks to a Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship in the Inuktitut language through the Canadian Studies Center, I had the opportunity to travel to the Canadian Arctic, and live in the village of Inukjuaq, in Nunavik, in the far North of Québec. While there, I lived with an Inuit family and spoke Inuktitut everyday. At first this was extremely difficult for me, however, the patience of the community members and the generosity of my family was simply empowering. I felt welcomed and learned an extraordinary amount—not only about language but also culturally, and the friends and contacts that I made will last throughout my life.

When I arrived in Inukjuaq, I was met by my contact from the Avataq Cultural Center. This was wonderful as she introduced me to my new family and we began to get acquainted. This was the beginning of my language experience, and also the start of my education about the current state of Inuit communities. My research involves with social networking movements in Inuit communities, and more broadly language preservation online. I was particularly interested in learning how Inuit communicate with each other face-to-face, and how this changes when taken online. In order to learn more, I spoke with as many Inuit as I could (an adventure in itself!), asking about language, culture, and trying to understand the Inuit experience more fully. I felt welcomed throughout and my Inuktitut was a constant sorce of fun and amusement for the Inuit who enjoyed helping me with my pronunciation and vocabulary.

During the voyage I gained so much—not only data for my research, and ideas for writing, but friendships, language, and knowledge of an ancient and noble culture, all wrapped up in the kind, smiling faces of my Inuit companions. The Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowship opportunity has been the highlight of my program. It is a way that theory and coursework can be applied to the real world.